Smartphone companies have been trying to innovate ever since Apple changed the game with the iPhone X and XS notch. Companies have been trying to incorporate the same or a smaller notch into their smartphones to make the experience less intrusive. Some smartphones like the Vivo Nex have a pop-up selfie camera while the OnePlus 6T has a water drop notch. Samsung introduced a punch-hole selfie camera on one of its smartphones and Honor took the next step by placing it on the top-left corner. 

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While the punch-hole screen may be the star attraction here, the smartphone also packs a punch when it comes to performance. Considering the price, the Honor View 20 has hit the ball out of the park with what all it can do. It's the first major smartphone launch of 2019 in India and what a start it has been. We've been using the Honor View 20 for almost three weeks as our daily device and here's what we think about the smartphone:

The Honor View 20 has a 6.4-inch punch-punch-hole Full HD+ LCD display and has a wider aspect ratio than other smartphones of the same size. The display has a resolution of (2,310 x 1,080 pixels) and has an aspect ratio of 19:25.9

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The LCD screen is quite impressive given that it's the nearest competitor being the OnePlus 6T features an OLED panel. The only time we faced an issue with the display was when we tried to use it directly under the sun. That's an annoying problem with LCDs in general which is why some people prefer an OLED panel. Majority of the time, the display had great colour representation, viewing angels were strong and have a brightness level of 370 nits. The front-facing camera on the Honor View 20 is also not intrusive when it comes to the viewing experience. It took us a day or two to get used to the punch-hole camera as we often thought there was a smudge on the screen. This was simply because it was the first device we used with a camera setup like this. In time, we got used to the punch-hole camera display and made it harder to switch back to a smartphone with a notch. 

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In terms of design, the Honor View 20 is by far our favourite device by the Chinese company. It has a bright blue glass back phone that also as the letter “V” etched in the design. In fact, the V-Shaped pattern at the rear can catch the light and give a unique look from different angles. We love the bold blue colour as it is eye-catching and looks distinct from other smartphones. Build quality of the smartphone is also quite good as it has an aluminium frame with a premium finish. It has a 3.5mm jack (yay!) And a super fast fingerprint scanner at the back. 

The Honor View 20 is packed with quite a few components that make it Huawei Mate 20 Pro's younger brother. It is powered by the same Kirin 980 chipset (octa-core: 2x 2.6GHz, 2x 1.92GHz, 4x 1.8GHz) and is coupled with 6GB or 8GB of RAM. We got the 6GB/128 GB variant for review and it still managed to perform like a beast. The Kirin 980 chipset has primary and secondary cores that perform different tasks. These cores are complemented by 'mid' cores that help in conserving battery life and balance the workload. During our tests, the Honor View 20 scored 9588 in the multi-core test and 3308 single-core score test, respectively.

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That's even faster than the McLaren edition of the OnePlus 6T that has 10GB of RAM. It proves that RAM is not the only factor that contributes towards the speed of a smartphone —a common misconception in India. 

In terms of security, the Honor View 20 has a fingerprint scanner at the back that works blazingly fast and also has facial recognition. It works in a very rudimentary manner as it uses a punch-hole camera for scanning. Since it does not use has IR tracing, the Facial recognition feature is not as accurate as the Mate 20 Pro. 

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We used the Honor View 20 to play games like PUBG, Command & Conquer Rivals and Asphalt and faced no issues in regards to gaming performance. We didn't experience any frame rate drops, connectivity or over-heating issues. In fact, we prefer using the Honor View 20 for our gaming needs over any other smartphone right now. That's simply because the punch-hole display provides more immersive experience. 

As for battery life, the Honor View 20 has a 4,000 mAh battery that easily manages to last more than a full day on moderate use. While gaming, the battery life would drop down to 16 hours which is quite impressive in our opinion. It is bundled with a 5V fast-charger which is fast enough to phone going in under an hour. It's not as fast as OnePlus' warp charge, but it's still fast enough to get regular top-ups. 

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The Honor View 20 turns it up a notch in the camera department as well since it has a 48-megapixel snapper paired with a large sensor and an extremely quick f/1.8 aperture. It also has a TOF 3D stereo camera. It's the only smartphone in India that has resolution of that scale and the second smartphone in the world to do so. Sony's new IMX586 sensor is truly a beast and it often takes detailed and sharp images. Honor has also included an AI feature called “AI Ultra Clarity” which we are yet to test when Honor releases the update for Indian handsets. If you want a reference point, the View 20 outmatches the OnePlus 6T by a mile. Even the 25-MP selfie camera does a good job; however, we found some images to be a bit over-exposed and inaccurate with the bokeh effect. Here are some camera samples for your reference:

Images shot using the #HonorView20. #smartphones #technology #technews

A post shared by Akshay Bhalla (@editorinchief) on Jan 28, 2019 at 6:00am PST

The View 20 is by far the most powerful and beautiful smartphones ever made by Honor. It's the jack of all trades that can do everything a midrange flagship is supposed to do. It beats the OnePlus 6T in performance and photography and the punch-hole screen is a dream to use. It includes a headphone jack which is always a plus but lacks any form of water resistance. If you are looking for a smartphone that looks awesome but can also perform like a dream, the Honor View 20 is your purchase of the year.